A lot of catching-up to do!

Well, it has been 11 days since my last post. I'm not sure just how that much time managed to whizz by without my finding a moment to make a blog post! So it's "catch-up time!" The last post was just after taking Katie and Chrstian to the airport on Tuesday, October 3rd, for their flight home to St. Louis. We got back from the airport just in time to get to a River SIngers rehearsal. Wednesday, I remember we sort of took a deep breath - it was the first "free" day in a long time - and we just took it easy. I don't really remember what I actually did that day. Well, looking more carefully, that was actually the day I posted the blog about Katie and Chriatian - so that's one thing I did. Thursday, I think I went to the Planet Fitness gym - the first time for quite a while - and spent a little time biking. I also had a session with Angelina, and she really did some good work on my right arm and shoulder. I think I also dropped by to see Jerome briefly. But I think that was also Ellen's first day helping set up for the big Book Sale at the Guilford Church - so what I did was sort of built around that, because I do not drive any more. Friday the 6th, we had an appointment at Richmond's to have exhaust and brake work done on the Subaru. Ellen also put in time at the book sale set-up. I remember while she was working on books, I was off to the side in a Sunday School area working on my computer. I think that computer work was all related to Bible Study. The work on the Subaru was pricey! They had some problems getting the right parts for the exhaust system, as I recall. The total bill was close to $1000. Friday was also the anniversary of our friend, John Nissen's, death, and we called Mary, his widow, to plan a chance to get together, which we will be doing this coming Wednesday. Saturday was the day of the Book Sale - which was unexpectedly very successful - it brought in close to $2000. Other years it has been under $1000. Ellen helped out a bit in the morning and I stayed at home and worked on preparing materials for Bible Study on "The Parables of Jesus," which began this morning after church. I am doing two sessions - one after church, in-person, on Sunday, and one Thursday afternoom at 4:30p.m., via Zoom. It will meet every other week. Sunday the 8th, we went to the Guilford Church - Dunham Rowley, one of our lay leaders, led the service - and in the afternoon we went up to Marlboro for a Bach concert put on by the Brattleboro Music Center. It was a kind of echo of the old fall New England Bach Festival which happened every "Columbus Day weekend," as it was called back then - now Indigenous People's Day - and it was wonderful. It included the Bach Cantata for bass soloist, Ich Habe Genug,", featuring Randall Scarlotta as bass soloist, and also the Concerto for Oboe and Violin by Bach, which Ellen had played (as oboeist) back in her youth. It was a beautiful fall day and we enjoyed the concert very much.

The BMC Bach Concert.************************ Monday was a holiday and we didn't go anywhere - just enjoyed being at home with no agenda. Tuesday I think Ellen went to Eliza's and did some knitting, I stayed home and worked on Bible, and in the evening we had a special River Singers rehearsal led by John Harrison, founder and leader of the Montpelier Gospel Choir. We are doing two of his songs in our concert this season and he came down to teach them to us - something he has done several times in previous years. The rwo songs turned out to be fun to sing - very syncopated.

John Harrison******************************************* On Wednesday, I had an appointment with my PCP, Dr. Alexandra Van Dyck, and we went over a lot of things. She ordered some blood work just as a routine check-up, but basically, I'm doing fairly well, considering. In the evening we had our friend, Calvin Farwell, over for supper - something we had not done for a long time. We had a really good visit with him. Thuraday, we had the Subaru Impreza oil-undercoated at Brattleboro Auto Body - a place we had never been before. They were very nice and got the job done in a little over an hour. Later that day we drove to Grandma Miller's bakery, which involved driving over gravel roads, which is supposed to be good to do after oil under-coating, but it's been so wet, the roads were not very dusty. Friday there was nothing special but I spent the day on last-minute Bible Study prep, because I knew Saturday was going to be a full day. And it was: a memorial service at 11a.m. for Mary Lila Gregg, at the Guilford Church, and a Jazz Trio concert in the evening at the Brattleboro Jazz Center, a place we had never been to before, even though it has been there for years. Both the memorial service and the jazz trio were wondeerful. Mary Lila was 93 years old, but she was a real cut-up, an adventurous, funny, outgoing woman about whom her three daughters and a granddaughter told hilarious and moving stories. Mary Lila had left instructions for everyone to wear bright colors to her memorial - she wanted a party! - and she also wanted lots of sweets - she loved desserts! I saw a lot of Guilford old-timers at the reception following the service (for which Ellen had done a ton of baking - all those sweets!)

Pat and Tucky Houghton, old-time Guilford folks at Mary Lila's reception.*********************** Cyrus Chestnut, the pianist in the jazz trio, was fantastic - very reminiscent of Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner, and the bass player and perussionist were great musicians also. We took Jerome with us - he was the one who urged us to go - and we all enjoyed it very much. The house was packed, The Vermont Jazz Center is located in an old shoe factory building on Cotton Mill Hill - getting in and out of the building was challenging, but I managed it.

Top: Eugene Umman, head of the Brattleboro Jazz Center Next down: Cyrus Chestnut, jazz pianist extraordinaire. Next down: Cyrus and bassist, Herman Burney Bottom: Percussionist, Kelton Norris****************** Then today was church followed by Bible Study. Church service was led by Paula Marks, a layperson in the congregation. The theme was "accepting the darkness," and the choir sang a very appropriate anthem - a new one for us. For Bible study, Ellen provided soup and corn bread. We had over 10 people there, and I think everyone felt it was a good session. The topic is "The Parables of Jesus." I'll have more to say about that in future posts. I got a recording of the session - about an hour-and-a-half, using a recorder John lent me, and it picked up voices very well. However, it is a huge file - almost a gigabite - so I can't just send it to people as an attachment in an email. I know there is a way to share a big file like that on Google Drive, but I don't know how to do that. I'll have to get help. That brings us up to today. Tomorrow is open, Tuesday is River Singers, Wednesday we are meeting Mary Anderson-Nissen for lunch in Wilmington and bringing Anne Janeway with us, Thursday I have a Zoom Bible study session, and next weekend is full - a memorial service for Althea McBean in Dummerston on Saturday and I'm leading choir in Dummerston on Sunday. I can't complain that I have nothing to do! ,